Notables

Jerrold Hirsch, professor of history, participated in a workshop “Writing Democracy 2012: Envisioning a Federal Writers’ Project for the 21st Century” at the 2012 annual convention on College Composition and Communication in March in St. Louis, Mo., and presented a paper at another session entitled “Learning From the FWP.”

The undergraduate research teams of Diane Janick-Buckner, professor of biology, and Brent Buckner, professor of biology, traveled to Portland, Ore., to attend the Maize Genetics Conference in mid-March. Sophomore Lauren Choate presented a poster entitled “Copy Number Variation (CNV) of Genes involved in Carotenoid Biosynthesis in Maize.” Senior Anna Zahner and recent Truman graduates Prabhakar Bastola and Gaurab K.C. collaborated on the presentation of two posters entitled “Characterization of a new Developmental Mutant of Maize: raggedseedling-378” and “Histological and Molecular Characterization of Maize Mutant rld*5409.” Junior Kevin Bodker and recent Truman graduate Eric Butler were also co-authors on the posters. Also in attendance representing Truman was Ashley Lough, a 2006 graduate and postdoctoral research/teaching scholar at Truman. Truman alumni Charles Dietrich, David Skibbe and Ryan Douglas were also participants at the conference.

Elaine McDuff, associate professor of sociology, has published an article, “Collaborative Learning in an Undergraduate Theory Course: An Assessment of Goals and Outcomes,” in the April edition of Teaching Sociology, an academic journal of the American Sociological Association, which focuses on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

David Partenheimer, professor of English, was recognized by Alpha Sigma Alpha Sorority as March’s professor of the month. Alpha Sigma Alpha’s program “Professor Payday” acknowledges one of Truman’s outstanding professors every month.